OK, What is with the statements enclosed inside [] operator regarding threading?

I keep looking around to try and figure this out. I keep seeing code with something like [STAThread] on a line by itself.

Now, I have figured out that it sets the type of apartmenting you can do. And you seem to use it like the using namespace statements to define if you are going to hae a sta or a mta, but where in the world does the syntax for this statement come from Is this strictly a COM feature in which it overloaded the [] operator

Just wanted to make sure I didn't miss some new language element that I may need.

Also, I seem to have gathered that you only need to mark things as STA or MTA using this feature if you are going to be interfacing with a COM DLL If you stay in the .NET you can ignore this

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OK, What is with the statements enclosed inside [] operator regarding threading?

WojtekG
This syntax specifies attribute used by the methods followed.

See the below following links that might help:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/vcattrib/html/vcrefMethodAttributes.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/vcattrib/html/vcrefattributesbyusage.asp

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp url=/library/en-us/dnguinet/html/drguinet3_update.asp

Hope this helps!

Thanks,
Ayman Shoukry
VC++ Team
Antons1
You might want to jump right into C++/CLI (2005) and avoid Managed C++ (2003) since the syntax is significantly different.

David Anton
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arti_z
These are Attributes. There are several kinds of attributes including those that you define yourself (look into the System.Reflection namespace). In the case of STAThread or MTAThread, the CLR will set the Apartment type of the main thread accordingly -- the same as calling Thread.SetApartmentState. In the case of STAThread, COM is initialized for the thread with a call to OleInitialize() which enables using drag-and-drop, the clipboard and other features. The best thing to do is always make a WinForms app an STAThread.
Yorch

C++/CLI is VC++ 2005
You've got it - not having to make the 2003 - 2005 transition makes your life easier.

David Anton
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intSteve
Thank you all of you. That helps a lot. I thought there had to be something new added in there. Haven't done any programming siince 98 and that was using BC++. Visual C++ is a lot different.
Dino Viehland
I am using VC++ .NET 2005 Beta atm. Is CLI the ANSI standard or is it another flavor of VC++
Boltress
This is attribute syntax. It's the same as C#.
Attributes are meta-data about the entity you apply the attribute to.

Examples are:
[Obsolete]
[Serializable]

David Anton
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EAdam
Cool. I knew I had come across that acronym several times but couldn't remember in what context. That's one of the reasons I downloaded the beta rather than sinking money into the 2003 version. Glad I did. It is actually a little easier to understand some of the concepts as far as I am concerned. Just means that some of the things the beta takes for granted I know leaves me a little frustrated from time to time. But it's fun in any case to get back into it.
OK, What is with the statements enclosed inside [] operator regarding threading?

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